Box printing machine



1962 c. R. HYDER, JR.. ETAL 3,020,835

BOX PRINTING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 1, 1961 llllllllll INVENTORS CLARENCE R HYDER JR DAVID D VESTAL )%,@@W

Feb. 13, 1962 c. R. HYDER, JR, ETAL 3,020,835

BOX PRINTING MACHINE Filed March 1, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 69 /l05 'J'" q F I Q INVENTORS 49 70 10b CLARENCE R HYDER JR DAVID D VESTAL BY FIG. l4 fia afW 7 Feb. 13, 1962 c. R. HYDER, JR, ETAL 3,020,835

BOX PRINTING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed March 1, 1961 INVENTORS CLARENCE R HYDER JR DAVID D VESTAL fiw. W

Feb; 1962 c. R. HYDER, JR., ETAL 3,020,835

BOX PRINTING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed March 1, 1961 INVENTORS CLARENCE R HYDER JR DAVID D VESTA'L BY #50660. W

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Patented Feb. 13, 1Q62 3,020,835 30X PRINTING MACHINE Clarence R'Hyder, In, and David D. Vestal, Burlington, NAIL, assiguors to Burlington Industries, Inc., Greensboro, Nil, a corporation or Delaware Filed Mar. 1, 1961, Ser. No. 92,654 Claims. (Cl. 10144) This invention relates to printing equipment and more particularly to an improved printing and box handling machine for labeling the flaps of pre-packed cardboard boxes.

In the packaging of certain articles such as hosiery, it has been the practice to print the customary identification of the contents on the end flap of the box cover after the box has been filled. This has been an entirely manual operation in that an operator holds a stack of boxes and offers them up individually to the anvil of a printing press for stamping or imprinting. Considerable ability and practice are required for this operation since the operator must insert the anvil between the box bottom and the cover flap at precisely the right time and at the right angle. The temperamental and psychological qualifications of an operator for the prior machines described above have been so exacting that only a limited number of qualified operators is available. Our improved printing machine is fully automatic and is capable of accurately and clearly marking a continuous series of box lids without interruption.

The primary. object, therefore, of the invention is to provide an automatic box cover printing machine capable of high speed continuous printing of pre-packaged boxes.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a continuous box printing machine means for presenting a flap of the box lid to the printing head at an inclined angle.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a continuous box printing machine means for continuously feeding a series of boxes such as hosiery boxes to the printing head.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a box printing machine means for ejecting the last box in a stack of boxes being fed to a continuous printing machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide means for stacking the boxes discharged from the continuous printing machine in minimum space while permitting the ink to dry.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a continuous box printing machine means for stacking and removing printed boxes without stopping the printing machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a continuous box printing machine of the type described herein improved means for positioning and aligning the type accurately in the printing head.

Further objects will be apparent from the specification and drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of our improvedhox printing machine showing the stacks of boxes being fed and stacks of printed boxes being removed,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged section of the printing machine as seen at 22 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional detail of the stacking bracket shown at the top of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a view of one of the type slugs positioned on the printing head or type bar,

FIGURE 5 is a perspective of the slug shown in FIG- URE 4,

FIGURE 6 is a sectional detail as seen at 66 of FIGURE 4,

FIGURE 7 is an enlarged top view' partly broken away as seen at 7-7 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 8 is a side view of the structure of FIGURE'7,

FIGURES 9 and 10 are views similar to FIGURE 8 but with the parts in a moved position showing the progression of the boxes through the printing machine,

FIGURE 11 is a perspective of the unloading and stacking device,

FIGURE 12 is a partially sectioned enlarged detail of the pivoting backstop shown at FIGURE 11,

FIGURE 13 is a fragmentary view of the upendingrack or cradle in a pivoted upright position, and- FIGURE 14 is a sectional detail as seen at 1414 of FIGURE 1.

The invention comprises essentially the provision of a conventional printing press assembly which may be a Markem 45A machine but mounted on a framework to permit a substantially horizontal movement of the printing head.

an offset position underneath the printing head whereupon a cam-actuated elevator or plunger raises one end" of a box to an inclined or angular position so that one cover flap is positioned on an anvil at right angles to the' printing type whereas the box body itself is tilted or canted to compensate for the usual bow in the cover flap. After printing, the box is lowered to the main platform, ejected, and stacked on edge by a kicker foot. When a sufficient number of edge-stacked boxes has been deposited upon the unloading rack, the operator slides a backstop to a point above an upending cradle whereupon a pre-selected number of boxes can be upended and stacked vertically and later removed to a table or conveyor as may be de-' sired.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, the printing press assembly comprises a platform 15 mounted on a plurality of legs 16, 16, four of which are provided with a shelf 17. The structure above the platform 15 comprises a backboard 18, a feed stack platform 19, and a printing press assembly 20. The printing press as-. sembly is supported on a horizontally extending pedestal 21 which is in turn secured to a pair of upright standards 22 and 23. Standards 22 and 23 are secured to the back of platform 15 at their lower extremities and are tied cycle of the printing press. Actuation of the printing press motion is achieved by means of a crank 35 secured to shaft 36 which is in turn driven from motor 37 through a pulley 38 and belts 39, 39a (FIGURE 2). A shaft 40 is journaled in a pair of brackets 41 and 42 secured to the pedestal 21' and a toggle link motion serves to connect crank 35 with bracket 28 through a connecting rod 45, links 46, 46 pivoted to a second shaft 47, and links 48, 48 which connect shaft 47 with the lower portion of swinging bracket 28.

The feed stack 49 of upside down filled boxes is posie tioned above platform 15 adjacent the printing press 20. Each bottom box 49a of the stack is fed sequentially to a point alongside the printing press 20. Additional piles of unprinted boxes 50 and 51 are placed on the platform 19 so that the operator may replenish stack 49 as itbecomes exhausted. A stack holder clamp assembly 55 deteale 35 To avoid smudging, a reciprocating; plunger carries boxes from the bottom of a feed stack to scribed in detail hereinafter, is used to maintain the boxes in stack 49 in substantially vertical registry with each other.

Referring now to FIGURES 7-10, the bottom box 49a of the stack 49 rests upon two parallel fingers 56 and 57 secured to a pusher foot 58 mounted on the piston rod 59 of hydraulic cylinder 60. Fluid such as air under pressure is selectively admitted to each end of cylinder 60 to control the reciprocation of piston rod 59 and pusher foot 58. Admission of pressurized fiuid into the head 65 of cylinder 60 urges piston 66 to the right to strip bottom box 49a from the stack 49. During the stripping operation, the remainder of the stack is supported on the bars or rails 67 and 68 which are secured to the pusher foot and extend in the opposite directions from fingers 56 and 57. These bars 67 and 68 advance with the pusher foot 58 as shown in FIGURE 9. The stack of boxes 49 is inserted in a guiding and aligning vertical compartment comprising the backboard 18, a rear angle member 69, and a front angle member 79 which terminate suificiently far above platform to permit only the bottom box 49a in the stack to be pushed from the bottom of the stack. When the piston is reversed in cylinder 60 to retract the pusher foot 58 and fingers 56 and 57, the stack 49 rests on bars 67 and 68 and remains in an elevated position until foot 58 clears the next succeeding box. At this point the entire stack 49 drops the thickness of one box so that the stack rests on fingers 56 and 57.

After the piston 66 is sufficiently retracted and the next box on the bottom of stack 49 is in the position shown in FIGURE 8, the prior box 49a is now at the printing station shown in FIGURE 8 under control of springloaded presser feet 71 and 72. These presser feet are resiliently suspended in brackets 73 and 74 which are in turn mounted on the pedestal 21. The bars 71 and 72 flare upwardly at either end and are loaded by means of pairs of springs 75, 75 and 76, 76 which tend to urge the presser feet downwardly against the adjustable setting of nuts 77, 77.

An important feature of the invention resides in the means for accurately positioning each box as it is printed because it is impossible to maintain a fixed lateral guide on both ends of the box at the exact time of printing. To insure the proper transverse alignment of each box as it is delivered to the printing station, we provide two tracks or guides shown in FIGURE 7. The front guide 78 is carried straight across the front of the machine under the printing head. The rear guide 79, however, is adjustable laterally by means of slotted apertures 80 and 81. At the bottom of stack 49, however, rear guide 79 is positioned so that it is sufiiciently wide to accommodate slight irregularities in the vertical alignment of the stack. However, the rear guide is offset or bends at 82 so that all of the boxes are accurately guided to move forward in close contact with the upstanding web or flange 83 of the guide 79.

As the box is advanced below presser feet 71 and 72, the vertically acting plunger 84 (FIGURE 2) elevates the forward end of each box to insert the anvil 85 between the cover flap of the box and the box bottom. Anvil 85 is suspended from an adjustable bracket 86 mounted underneath pedestal 21 and movable laterally by means of a hand wheel 87 which turns a threaded shaft 88 engaging a boss 89 secured to the bracket 86.

The box to be printed when in the tilted or raised position shown in FIGURE 2 is maintained under accurate alignment and control at all times by means of the rear guide web 83 as well as the compression of presser feet 71 and 72. This insures that the boxes do not move in any way from a position which would prevent the anvil 85 from entering between the box and the cover flap. To assist in this function the lower edge of anvil 85 is somewhat beveled on one side so that it may always be in alignment with the gap between the flap and box botto as the box is elevated by plunger 84. It is to be noted that the front face of anvil is not beveled since it must present a substantially flat and right angle surface to the type 32.

Plunger 84 is actuated in timed sequence to the advancing of each box by means of a cam 90 keyed to shaft 91 which is in turn journalcd in bearings 92 and 93. A cam follower 94 mounted on the bottom of the plunger 84 provides the driving contact between the cam and the plunger. Shaft 91 is in turn driven from shaft 36 through chain 95 and sprockets 96 and 97. Suitable idler sprockets 98 and 99 serve to control the direction of the chain 95. At or soon after the time when the box is elevated as shown in FIGURE 2 and the front flap securely positioned in front of anvil 85, shaft 36 turns under control of belt 39a and pulley 100 to rotate the crank 35 thus advancing the printing head 27 and causing the desired indicia to be printed on the flap. Continued rotation of shaft 91 drops cam follower 94 from the lobe of cam 90 so that plunger 84 falls to permit the box to resume its horizontal position on the guides or tracks and 106 each of which is preferably provided with a woven fabric facing made of a synthetic material such as nylon to avoid damage or injury to the cardboard boxes.

After printing, the boxes are advanced sequentially towards the righthand end of platform 15 to be deposited on edge on the receiving rack assembly 110. The operator then moves a slidable backstop 111 into position above a pivoting cradle 112. This group of boxes and the cradle are then turned approximately 90 to the upright stacked position shown in FIGURE 13. This stack of boxes may then be delivered to a conveyor or removed manually.

It will be understood that the present machine incorporates several features which are designed especially to insure optimum satisfactory operation and accurate alignment of the printing on the box lids. In addition, it is a simple matter for one operator to attend to one or more of the printing machines due to the incorporation therein of features providing continuous efiicient operation.

Operationally the first of these features is the stack aligner 55 which will be described in detail. With the printing machine in condition to run the operator places series of unprinted boxes on the machine such as stacks 49, 50, and 51. The stack aligner is employed for stack 49 only and in order to position this stack properly the operator first pivots and slides the aligner to a displaced position, then places the stack 49 adjacent the backboard 18 and vertical guides 69 and 70 (FIGURE 14) whereupon the aligner is moved back into the clamping and guiding position shown in FIGURE 1. The press is now ready to run and is started by means of a switch, not shown, that controls motor 37 and in turn the other cycles of the handling mechanism as described.

The detail structure of the stack aligner assembly 55 shown more clearly in FIGURE 3 comprises a rod 115 having a right angle bend at 116 and slideable in a sleeve 117 against pressure of compression spring 118. The spring 118 abuts sleeve 117 at one end and an adjustable collar 119 at the other which is secured to rod 115 by means of the setscrew 120. An auxiliary aligning rod 121 is secured to collar 119 and also is slideable in an upper extension 122 of sleeve 117. Rod 121 at its other end is welded to rod 115 at 123. A second adjustable collar 125 locked by setscrew 126 determines the limit of relative sliding motion of the bar 115 in sleeve 117. The entire assembly is swingable on a vertical axis since sleeve 127 secured to sleeve 117 at right angles freely swivels on upright post 128. The operator thus can pivot the entire assembly to any desired position and can also displace rod 115 horizontally so that it automatically aligns all of the boxes in stack 36 against the angle guides 69 and 70 (FIGURE 14), which terminate just above rails 105 and 106 to permit passage of one box between the rails and the guides as seen in FIGURE 1. It will, of course, be understood that the boxes in all the stacks are upside-down, thus permitting the anvil 85 to enter the slot formed by the natural bow of the box cover flap.

Another important feature of the invention pertains to the printing head and type plates shown in FIGURES 4-6. In order to maintain completely accurate registry and alignment of the printed indicia on the box flaps, it is extremely important to insure that the type on the printing head be positively located and positioned with respect to the box flap. We have found that it is possible with the improvements of the present invention to print a large number of boxes which when stacked will have absolutely vertical alignment of the printed material 129 on the box cover flaps. In order to accomplish this re sult, we utilize a type bar element 27 (FIGURE 4) having magnetic inserts 131, 131 and two longitudinal raised flanges 132, 133 and a lateral flange 134. The actual type or letters 135 are formed on base elements 136 which is in turn adhesively secured to a magnetically attractable plate of steelor other similar material 137. The width of plate 137, 137 is calculated to be a close sliding fit between the flanges 132 and 133' of type bar 130. It has been found that with the use of small powerful magnets 131, the type plates 137, 137 are accurately maintained at all times in the same position and may be readily removed and exchanged for another plate without difiiculty. The flanges 132 and 133 maintain vertical alignment and parallelism between the lines of printed material and the box edges whereas the lateral flange 134 maintains the end alignment of all of the plates 137, 137 which are endwise abutted and pushed tightly against each other. It was been found that accurate registry and alignment could not be achieved with previously known type bar con-' structions.

As the next box is pushed into printing position under presser bars 71 and 72, box 49a moves to the right in FIGURE 8 and over a pair of biased runners 145 and 146 (FIGURES 8, 9, and 11). A spring foot 147 prevents telescoping or overriding of the boxes until they are deposited on and over the guides 146 and 147, and as the successive box continues to push forward, the box which has been deposited on the guides 145 and 146 is upended as clearly shown in FIGURE 9 so that it rests on the tubular frame members 148 and 149 of the unloading rack assembly 110. The foregoing actuation of the boxes is timed with the operation of a pivoting kicker foot 155 which is pivoted at 156 to a bracket 157 secured to one of the frame legs 16. Referring to FIGURES 8, 9, and 11, it will be seen that actuation of the kicker foot 155 by means of a sequentially timed cylinder 158 causes the upended boxes on unloading rack 150 to be pushed down against backstop 111 a sufiicient distance to leave a gap as seen in FIGURE 8 for the reception of the next box. This gap enables the box marked B in FIGURES 8 and 9 to be pushed up on end over the guides 145 and 146 to fit snugly into the gap provided by the kicker foot 155. As soon as box 13 has reached a vertical or on-edge position, the kicker foot is actuated to move the entire stack of boxes on the rack as well as the backstop 111 to a more advanced position. As the machine continues to operate as described, the backstop 111 is moved on rod 161 to a bottom position adjacent the limit switch 162. Limit switch 162 is positioned near the lower terminus of rod 161 and in the event the backstop 111 is pushed all the way to an extreme position, limit switch cuts off current to motor 37 thereby stopping the operation of the machine until the operator can remove the stacked boxes from the unloading rack and prevent damage thereto. This backstop slides on rod 161 under the light tension of a spring 163 (FIGURE 12) adjustable by means of a setscrew 164. A friction element 163a, such as a leather or nylon pad, prevents the backstop 111 from sliding down rod 161 under its own weight but readily permits the backstop to move down the rod under pressure from 6 the successively supplied boxes. A T shaped sleeve element 165 is both slidable and turnable on the rod 161 and the plate 166 of backstop assembly 111 is secured by suit able means, such as welding, to the upwardly extending boss 167 of the sleeve 165.

As the boxes continue to build up on rails 148 and 149', they gradually approach the abutments 170 and 171 which are in turn secured to a U shaped rail 172 pivoted to rod 173 at 174 and 175. In the position shown in FIGURE 11, rail 172 rests on cross bar 176 so that it is lower or flush with the top of rails 148 and 149 thus permitting the boxes to slide over and above the rail 172. As the boxes approach the abutments 170 and 171, but before the leading edge of sleeve 165 contacts limit switch 162, the operator pivots the backstop 111 on rod 161 and slides it upwardly to a point above the top of rail 172. The operator then upends the stacking cradle 112 to convert a group of edge-stacked boxes to a stack of boxes on the arms 176, 171 of the cradle as shown in FIGURE 13. A back guide or rail 1'77 facilitates the transverse align-' ment and stacking of the boxes as they progress down wardly on rails 148 and 149 and also onto the rail 172 of the cradle. The lower end of the unloading rack is supported on a pair of relatively short legs or posts 178 and 179 which may be adjustable to give the desired slope to the entire rack and also to permit convenient registry with an unloading table. In this position the boxes may be deposited on a conveyor belt or otherwise removed as desired. After the boxes have been unloaded from the cradle it is then returned by the operator to the receiving position as shown in FIGURE 11 thus permitting continuous removal of the boxes in a stacked condition.

When a complete run of boxes is finished it is, of course, important to remove the last box in stack 49. We provide, for this purpose, a special kicker foot such as shown in FIGURE 10. When the last box in the stack 49 has been delivered to the station under the presser feet 71 and 72,- t'here is, of course, no further box supplied to the pusher foot 58 which would continue to move box 4% out of the machine. To accomplish this result, where there is no longer a stack of boxes on top of fingers 56 and 57, a sprag automatically springs to a raised position under urging of a fly spring 186. Sprag 185 is pivoted on a short stub shaft 187 mounted between the fingers 56 and 57 (FIGURE 7). It will be apparentfrom FIGURE 10 that when the piston 66 fully retracts after box 4% has been delivered to the printing station, sprag 185 pops up as soon as its leading edge clears the edge of box 4%. On the next cyclic actuation of cylinder 60, box 4% is then pushed to the station corresponding to box 490 in FIGURE 10 and theprinting has been completed thus it is possible to print and remove the last box in the stack.

The cycling operation of parts of the printing press assembly other than the printing head itself is initiated by means of a switch 201) which contacts crank 35 through an arm 201 and roller 202 which is actuated by a cam 203 (FIGURE 2).

Other important features that may be noted are the fact that the unloading rack is provided with a drop to facilitate the end stacking and sliding of the boxes onto the cradle. The design and construction of the unloading foolproof and highly efficient automatic box printing mamachine without the necessity for stopping to load or unload.

It will thus be understood that we have provided a foolproof and highly eflicient automatic box printing machine which produces high speed printing of hosiery boxes in which the box cover has a bowed edge without the necessity for any manual intervention in the printing operation. The electrical and fiuid control systems are gen erally well known in the art and form no part of the present invention, therefore, it is believed that a detailed description thereof is unnecessary. The device is extremely flexible in that it will accept boxes of widely vary- 7 ing dimensions since proper adjustments can be made for this purpose in the back platform 18 and the guide rails 78 and 79.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. In a machine for continuously printing boxes and the like, a framework, vertical guides for positioning a stack of boxes at one end of said framework, a reciprocating pusher foot mounted in the framework and positioned underneath said stack to individually strip the bottom box from the stack and advance it to a printing area on the framework, a vertically oscillating plunger on the framework underneath the printing area, a bladelike anvil adjustably mounted on the framework in an elevated position over the printing area, means for actuating the plunger to elevate one end of the box and insert the anvil between the box bottom and a cover flap of the box, a movable printing head for printing indicia on the cover flap when the box end is in said elevated position, a kicker for ejecting the box onto an unloading rack, and means for sequentially actuating the pusher foot, the plunger, and the kicker.

2. A printing machine in accordance with claim 1 in which the pusher foot is provided with a pair of fingers for supporting the stack of boxes when the pusher foot is in the retracted position, and means including a pair of rods extending in the opposite direction from the fingers for supporting the stack of boxes when the pusher foot is in an advanced position.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 in which the pusher foot is provided with a spring-loaded sprag to eject the last box in the stack from the printing area.

4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 having a stack aligning element comprising a spring-loaded arm, a vertical post on which said arm is pivotally mounted, and a sleeve supported on the post and in which the arm is slideable whereby the arm may be pivoted to a displaced position.

5. A printing press assembly in accordance with claim 2 having adjustable guides on the framework for accurately locating each box in the printing area over the 4 plunger.

6. Apparatus in accordance with claim 5 in which one of said guides is provided with an ofiset.

7. In a machine for continuously printing boxes and the like, a framework, vertical guides for positioning a stack of boxes at one end of said framework, a reciprocating pusher foot mounted in the framework and positioned underneath said stack to individually strip the bottom box from the stack and advance it to a printing area on the framework, a vertically oscillating plunger on the framework underneath the printing area, a bladelike anvil adjustably mounted on the framework in an elevated position over the printing area, means for actuating the plunger to elevate one end of the box and insert the anvil between the box bottom and a cover flap of the box, a movable printing head for printing indicia on the cover flap when the box end is in said elevated position, an unloading rack secured to the framework adjacent the printing area, guide means between the printing area and the unloading rack for upending each box as it passes from the printing area onto the unloading rack, a kicker positioned adjacent the top of the unloading rack for moving upended boxes along the rack, and a pivoting cradle at the opposite end of the unloading rack for stacking a selected group of boxes in a flat position.

8. Apparatus in accordance with claim 7 having a slidable backstop movable along the rack under impulses from the kicker delivered to the boxes.

9. Apparatus in accordance with claim 8 having a limit switch adjacent the terminus of the rack to stop the printing press.

10. Apparatus in accordance with claim 9 in which the unloading rack slopes downwardly from the framework to the pivot for the cradle.

Bornstein Apr. 1, 1924 Anderson Apr. 3, 1956 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent N0. 3 020, 83 5 February 13, 1962 Clarence R. Ryder J.r.-, et. a1

It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent: should read as corrected below Column 5, line 32, for f'was read has column 6, line 63, for "foolproof and highly efficient automatic box printing ma-" read rack and the cradle permit continuous operation of the nd sealed this 5th day of June 1962.,

Signed a (SEAL) Atteet:

ERNEST w. SWIDER DAVID L Commissioner of Patents Atteeting Officer 

